If you weren’t here last week, don’t miss our contest for Narnia books. Get your comment in by Wednesday night.
Is it from the Bible or Shakespeare?
Tuesday being April Fool’s Day, other blogs will be telling jokes, pulling pranks, and testing your gullibility with fake news. But here on Brandywine Books, I want to edify you a wee bit with literary quizzes. I doubt regular readers will have difficulty with these, but maybe some passersby may find them challenging.
The question for my homemade quiz is simple. Which of the following statements or quotations are from the Bible (King James Version) and which are from Shakespeare’s plays?
1. “Dispute it like a man.”
2. Life is “a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
3. “The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones.”
4. “To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?”
5. “Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”
6. “Every subject’s duty is the king’s; but every subject’s soul is his own.”
7. “Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.”
8. “Had I but serv’d my God with half the zeal I serv’d my king, He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies.”
9. “The trying of your faith worketh patience”
10. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Bonus: Does the saying, “the blind leading the blind,” originate in the Bible, Shakespeare, or elsewhere? Continue reading Is it from the Bible or Shakespeare?
Selling Your Book
Terry Whalin keeps talking about one of his books and answering Why Novelists Need Book Proposals That Sell. A great story isn’t all you need to sell your book.
Initials Reading Challenge
Becky announces a reading challenge for April through November 2008. “Read five to eight books by authors who publish under their initials.”
UTC Annual C.S. Lewis Lecture Monday Night
The 26th Annual C.S. Lewis Lecture at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is tomorrow night, March 31, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. I meant to blog on this before, but now that I am I see that lecturer has changed. Timothy George was scheduled to speak. Tonight, I see that Charles Lippy will fill that spot. It’s free admission to the Benwood Auditorium tomorrow night.
I’m told that Mark Noll is scheduled to speak next year.
Tags: c.s. lewis, Chattanooga, UTC, c.s. lewis lecture, theology, Timothy George, Charles Lippy, Mark Noll
The Java Boogie
Baristas boogied while we dealt with the jitters, says this report from the Starbucks blackout.
In news from North Florida and South Georgia, “postal workers and tax preparers with valid identification can get a free iced or hot coffee from one of the 18 participating Dunkin Donut locations St. Augustine, Palatka and Waycross” on April 1 and 15. It’s part of a Hero of the Month program.
And from our coffee tip desk, use burrs to grind your beans, not blades.
Tags: coffee, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, free, coffee grinders
Blogger Bags Book Deal
I learned about the blog “Stuff White People Like” from Jared at Thinklings. Can’t say I would have clicked on a link to this blog if I had seen it in a list of 10 popular or interesting blogs from some reputable site, but I saw in the NY Times that the writer has received a book deal at $300k. The writer, Christian Lander, comments on this deal:
The combination of white people and books has been a pretty solid combo for the past few hundred years. So whenever a white person is given a chance to write a book, it’s considered a pretty big deal. This is especially true when it happens to someone who started a blog that they never expected to reach more than 100 people.
I gather this is site is inline with the white mascot joke seen in this remarkable line of products, though maybe it’s the reverse of that. Either way, Random House thinks Lander has something going for him, so bully for him.
The Great Comic-Book Scare
Terry Teachout reviews a history book on cultural splash some comic books made a while back. The book is The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, by David Hajdu. (via Abe Greenwald)
Tags: comic books, horror comics, culture, American history
A meme. Eight is theme.
I’m told that our temperatures remain below average, but frankly I don’t care. It’s warmer than it was a week ago, and the snow is melting away. The sun shines in the windows, warming the house without recourse to natural gas. This is good.
Sherry at Semicolon has tagged Phil and me with a meme. This is a meme of eight, but it seems pretty much identical to the meme of six I did just a short while ago. Except that, you know, it’s got eight instead of six.
I can’t account for anyone’s desire to know more stuff about me. It seems to me I purvey that commodity pretty indiscriminately around here, and the supply exceeds the demand.
However, I don’t have any bright ideas of my own tonight, so here it is.
The Rules:
Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
My List:
1. I’m right-handed, but I generally mouse with my left hand. This is because I thought I was developing a repetitive motion problem a while back. Turns out it wasn’t the fault of the mouse, but of my sword exercises. Nevertheless, I figure it doesn’t hurt to cultivate ambidexterity. I understand it helps with rehab if you ever have a stroke, and judging by my family history, there’s a clot in there somewhere with my name on it.
2. I can wiggle my ears.
3. Contrary to the traditional mystique of the Suffering Artist, I find I’m far more creative when I’m happy.
4. Unfortunately, I’m almost never happy.
5. I’ve never gotten an ice cream headache.
6. I once voted for Al Gore in a primary, back when I was a Democrat.
7. My blood type is A Pos. The only place in the world where A Pos. blood is in the majority is Scandinavia.
8. I never tag other bloggers with memes. That would be too outgoing.
Journalists Admit Reliance on Blogs
Silicon Alley Insider point to a survey that says Nearly 73% of respondents sometimes or always use blogs in their research. From the report:
Seventy percent of respondents say public opinion of journalists has gotten worse during the past five years, and 52% believe the general public has a “somewhat negative” opinion of journalists.
Nearly 73% of respondents sometimes or always use blogs in their research. The most often cited reason for using blogs was “to measure sentiment.”